


Doing Nothing

by entirely_too_tall



Category: Check Please! (Webcomic)
Genre: Bullying, locked in a utility closet
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-12-11
Updated: 2017-12-11
Packaged: 2019-02-13 10:17:26
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,320
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12981915
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/entirely_too_tall/pseuds/entirely_too_tall
Summary: “Eric, could you maybe do a captain-to-captain talk with the figure skating girls after practice? They’ve been sitting around in the stands doing nothing and giggling and being a distraction.”“I’ll do my best, sir,” Eric replied, though he knew he wouldn’t be able to do much. He knew that the figure skating girls (and boys) weren’t going to stop loitering around in the stands, no matter what he said.After all, he used to do it too.





	Doing Nothing

**Author's Note:**

> This is inspired by the short film "The Girls Were Doing Nothing" which I have not watched, but found the title and meaning quite inspiring, and made and entire fic out of it. The full quote would spoil this, so read the end notes to find out more.
> 
> Check Please and its characters belong to Ngozi, I am only expanding upon it for our collective non-commercial pleasure.

 

“Eric, could you maybe do a captain-to-captain talk with the figure skating girls after practice? They’ve been sitting around in the stands doing nothing and giggling and being a distraction.”

 

Coach Dunlop pulled Eric aside from overseeing the team doing footwork drills to ask him of this favor. 

 

“Lord knows Maggie hates my guts for having y’all scratching up the ice before her girls practice, she won’t listen to what I say. But you got some people magic in you, charming all the ladies and teachers, I reckon you could help me out here.”

 

Coach Dunlop was a pushover, bless his heart. 

 

Eric had basically commandeered the hockey team ever since he joined. He won the team over with his pastries, smoothed out the team dynamics, and installed Katya’s skating skills drills to much success. Much wailing and gnashing of teeth too, but the results were undeniable. They improved so much under his leadership that they managed improve their standings from last place to 4th on the tri-county table. Out of 6 teams. But still.

 

“I’ll do my best, sir,” Eric replied, though he knew he wouldn’t be able to do much. He knew that the figure skating girls (and boys) weren’t going to stop loitering around in the stands, no matter what he said.

 

After all, he used to do it too. 

 

He used to sit in the stands while waiting to practice on the ice after the hockey team was done. That was before he gave up on figure skating. Winning silver at the 2010 Southern Atlantic Regionals did nothing for him, in terms of getting to a better state emotionally. Moving to Madison got rid of the old bullies, but Eric was wary of developing the same reputation, of appearing as a nancy. It was a new high school, new folks who didn’t know who he was, and he was more than eager to start over.

 

Sticking to figure staking was difficult in that regard. It didn’t help that he had to find a new coach, and no one in the tri-country area could even match his level, let alone Katya’s. After a dispiriting performance at Sectionals, he called it quits. Eric bribed his way onto the hockey team as a substitute, and learned everything he needed while warming the bench for most of his first year. 

 

The rest was history. He built a new image of himself as the Charming Friendly Baker Hockey Captain Who Is Actually Kinda Hot But Too Short, though he resented the last part. It’s not that he was lamenting the lack of female attention, quite the contrary. He was pretty self-aware of his desires, after all. Just because Eric didn’t want to _appear_ as a nancy didn’t mean he wasn’t one. 

 

At least the girls admitted he was kinda hot, which was flattering, and not needing to fend himself from girls throwing themselves at him was a solid deal. His six-foot line-mate Darren had a new girl to complain about every week it seemed, even when it was a semi-open secret that he was dating Helen, their co-captain. 

 

Would have been nicer to be 5’9” though. Or 5’8”. Not being too greedy. Are you listening, Lord in heaven? A little help would be nice. A small late growth spurt. No? Okay. 

 

What Eric would give to have been big enough to fend for himself. What he would give to have been brave enough to fend for himself back in Perry. Three whole years of misery and keeping his head down and being bullied and Coach “doing my darned best” to “reign in my boys” when they “get too rowdy”. Like that’s stopped them slamming their shoulders into his in the hallways, or jeering and taunting him with “what you looking at?” or “you like this? You like looking at this?”

 

What is with jocks being idiots? All that brain damage from tackling, probably. 

 

Entering Perry Middle School on the cusp of puberty, when everyone was trying to figure themselves out, one would think people would be kinder. Instead, everyone was so _mean_ , like because you were insecure then nobody else deserved happiness. The jocks didn’t even look that good, with their lanky or chubby bodies awkwardly growing into their new muscles, and yet they’d be so proud, strutting around like peacocks. 

 

The school only inflated their egos even more, what with the royalty treatment for the “prize-winning football team”. If it weren’t for Coach keeping them in line and doing them some good coaching those dunderheads would be helpless. Check their recent rankings, Lord do they need some guidance now.

 

Eric always knew he was different from the rest of the boys, even before middle school. It was obvious, really. He hung around the girls too much, though he could say it was because he’d been skating since he was seven. But then he’d have to admit he’d been skating since he was seven, and that was an even bigger target to paint onto himself. 

 

There was also the fact that he enjoyed nothing that boys usually would, and everything that girls usually would. Baking, sequins, pop music. What’s wrong with pop music? Just because they were Atlanta-adjacent didn’t mean boys had to listen to rap and nothing else. Eric could rap along to Ludacris no sweat. He just preferred Ciara. 

 

Maybe he did hang around the figure skating girls too much. Maybe he did learn to like the wrong things. Maybe in learning to become the perfect figure skater, he learned from the wrong role models. Brian Orser. Johnny Weir. Maybe he should have distanced himself, joined football, be the son Coach always wanted him to be.

 

But Eric really was too small to play, and being knocked down too often when he was young gave him that fainting spell that sealed his fate. Discovering figure skating was his escape, and it was with a heavy sigh Eric would never forget that Coach relented and paid for his first figure skating lesson. 

 

It was the same sigh that greeted Eric when he emerged from being locked overnight in the utility closet. It was late into 7th grade and after the football season was over. Thankfully after figure skating season was over too, so it didn’t affect his competitions. Katya was livid when she found out, and so was Mama. But Coach, Coach just gave that same sigh. Not disappointment, not really. 

 

Resignation. _This is what I have been given_ , it meant. _I have tried_ , it meant. _This is not going to change_ , it meant. 

 

“Why did they do this to you, son?” Coach asked. “What did you do?” He wasn’t judging Eric. He just wanted to know. 

 

“Nothing, sir. I was just hanging out with some girls in the stands at the football field, is all. We were doing nothing.” 

 

Eric couldn’t look Coach in the eyes, couldn’t look anyone in the eyes. Mama was crying, angry tears spilling and she was furiously wiping them away and Eric would hear them arguing in their room later that night, about Coach needing to teach his boys some discipline and respect. How he wished he could come out to them right then, to say that the jocks wouldn’t stop bullying him anyway, whatever punishment Coach dished out at them. 

 

_— what you looking at —_

_they cornered him after practice waiting for Coach to go home_

_— you like looking at this —_

_they grabbed at him and shoved him into the utility closet_

_— you like this huh dontcha —_

_they pulled down their pants and pissed on him while he cowered and cried_

_— you want some more of this come back next week —_

_they locked the door and laughed and when asked Eric said he pissed himself_

 

They knew. Adults forget, or pretend to not know, but the football boys knew. 

 

Girls don’t just sit around in stands doing nothing. They were watching. 

 

Eric was watching.

 

**Author's Note:**

> The full quote and meaning from the short film is: _And they would look at us from the window, and they would say, “Look at the boys, playing football, and the girls, doing nothing.” We weren’t “doing nothing”. We were watching._
> 
> You can also watch the analysis of the short film [here](https://youtu.be/a1jfgnJ7thw?t=10m27s). Basically, the quote is about how society sees girls as these innocent, virginal, pure and not-yet-sexual beings, which they are not. Girls watch boys, especially athletic boys. As kids we know this, and are very acutely aware of who is watching us. I took this idea and developed it into this fic where Bitty would join the girls in watching the football boys in the pretense of waiting for Coach to drive him back, but none of the jocks were fooled.
> 
> Thank you for reading. Come find me on [tumblr](http://ohjustletmewriteinpeace.tumblr.com/).


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